Sigma Alpha Iota

SAI ACHIEVEMENTS Beta Beta Initiate Re-elected as AGO President S igma Alpha Iota's Dr. Eileen Guenther was elected to a third term as President of the National Council of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in July. Guenther is an initiate of Bete Beta Chapter at the University of Kansas and a current member of the Washington, DC Alumnae Chapter. She previously served on the guild's Task Force on Issues of Guild Inclusiveness. Beta Omicron initiate Agnes Armstrong was elected as one of the nine regional councillors. Election results were reported July 4 during the AGO Annual meeting, held in conjunction with the AGO National Convention in New York City. Members of the newly elected National Council include four national officers, four national councillors with portfolio, and nine regional councillors drawn from across the country. The nonvoting executive director serves as an ex officio member of Council. The AGO is the national professional association serving the organ and choral music fields. Founded Dr. Eileen Guenther in 1896 as both an educational and service organization, it sets and maintains high musical standards and promotes the understanding and appreciation of all aspects of organ and choral music. The purpose of the AGO is to promote the organ in its historic and evolving roles, to encourage excellence in the performance of organ and choral music, and to provide a forum for mutual support, inspiration, education, and certification of Guild members. The Guild currently serves approximately 19,000 members in more than 3o0 local chapters throughout the United States and abroad. The American Organist Magazine, the official journal of the AGO, the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and the Associated Pipe Organ Builders of America, reaches an audience of more than 20,000 each month. CLICK FOR MORE For more information, visit agohq.org Member Laureate, AGO Associate Performs Convention Concert D r. Joyce Finch Johnson, Associate of the American Guild of Organists, is Professor Emerita of Music at Spelman College where she continues to serve as College Organist. She performed the Organ Concert at Atlanta First United Methodist Church during the 2012 SAI National Convention in Atlanta. She is also an adjunct piano teacher of piano at Morehouse College. She joined the music faculty at Spelman in 1953 when she was hired to teach music theory and serve as accompanist for the Atlanta-Spelman-Morehouse chorus that provided choral music each Sunday afternoon for the Spelman Vesper Service and also for the annual Christmas Carol Concerts. From 1953 to 2005 Dr. Johnson served in many capacities in the Department of Music. As professor, she taught piano, organ, music theory, keyboard literature, and occasionally African American music. From 1989 - 1994 and 1995 2001, she served as Chair of the Department of Music. Since the retirement of the late Kemper Harreld in 1955, she has been the Spelman College Organist. A seasoned performer, she plays piano and organ recitals, conducts master classes and workshops, plays with chamber music groups and accompanies distinguished artists. In piano concerti of Liszt, Mozart, Beethoven, Franck, Rubinstein and John La Montaine, she has been a featured piano soloist with various symphony orchestras under conductors Robert Shaw, Louis 6 Dr. Joyce Johnson Lane, Christian Badea, and others. An initiate of Zeta Phi at Spelman, she was also initiated as an SAI Member Laureate by the Atlanta Alumnae Chapter in June 2011. A member of Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society, she is on the roster of International Steinway Artists. She has concertized in Bermuda, Haiti, the West Indies, and Brazil where she had a residency in Pernambuco and gave piano concerts in Sao Paulo as part of an international music festival (the Primeira Semana de Musica das Americas). In the summer of 1996 she performed in the Festival de Musique Baroque in Souvigny, France and in Lyon as part of a summer institute on French organ music. In the summer of 2005, she was a recitalist, workshop PAN PIPESSUMMER 2012 sai-national.org leader, and hymn festival organist at the AGO Region VIII Convention in Billings, Montana. An organist for a number of national conventions and/or nationally televised church services, she served on the United Church of Christ (UCC) Hymnal Committee resulting in the 1995 publication of The New Century Hymnal. Her professional involvements include participation in the American Guild of Organists, the College Music Society, the Music Teachers National Association and numerous board appointments and review panels. Dr. Johnson received the Bachelor's degree from Fisk University and the Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Northwestern University. She received additional music study at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Eastman School of Music. Her husband, Aaron Johnson, is a retired health care system administrator, and they have one daughter who is a corporate general counsel. Program Notes from the August 5th Concert Fantasia in G Minor, BWV 542 J. S. Bach (1685-1750) Improvisatory in style, this fantasia is a quasi toccata interspersed with two imitative sections. An unusual, spiraling, chromatic, modulatory section adds a bit of "modernity" to this work.

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